Form-fitted protective headgear liner mold

ABSTRACT

A method for fabricating form-fitting headgear liners which conform to an individual wearer&#39;&#39;s head and which may be covered with a hard, rigid outer protective shell. The form fitting liners are fabricated by placing a headpiece such as a bathing cap, a rubber dam, and a rigid outer shell with openings drilled therein on an individual&#39;&#39;s head, pouring in a material which will foam and fill the space between the headpiece and the outer shell, allowing the material to foam and harden, and then removing the rubber dam, bathing cap, and outer shell.

United States atent n91 Morton [54] F ORM-FITTED PROTECTIVE HEADGEARLINER MOLD [76] Inventor: William G. Morton. 22 Rue Royale,

Dayton, Ohio 45429 [22] Filed: Nov. 10, 1971 [21] Appl.No.: 197,551

Related U.S. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 805,299, March7, 1969.

[52] U.S. Cl .L ..425/2, 2/3 R, 264/222 [51] Int. Cl "B290 1/14, A42b3/00 [58] Field of Search ..425/2; 264/222, 54,

[56] References Cited.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Oestrike ..264/222 X Keller ..425/2 [451 Apr. 10,1973 10/1959' Miller ..2/3 R x 8/1962 Pierce ..264/54 X PrimaryExaminer-Robert L. Spicer, Jr. Attorney-Harry A. Herbert, Jr. et al.

[5 7] ABSTRACT A method for fabricating form-fitting headgear linerswhich conform to an individual wearers head and which may be coveredwith a hard, rigid outer protective shell. The form fitting liners arefabricated by placing a headpiece such as a bathing cap, a rubber dam,and .a rigid outer shell with openings drilled therein on an individualshead, pouring in a material which will foam and fill the space betweenthe headpiece and the outer shell, allowing the material to foam andharden, and then removing the rubber dam, bathing cap, and outer shell.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures RELATED U.S. APPLICATION This is a division,of application Ser. No. 805,299, filed Mar. 7, i969.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention isin the field of form-fitting protective headgear liners and theirfabrication.

2. Description of the Prior Art Protective headgear are well known andused in many fields of endeavor such as firefighting, construction work,police work, and sports as well as by aircraft crew members. In manyinstances it is advantageous to have a liner which may be insertedbetween a hard outer protective shell and the individual wearers headand which will fit snugly and conform exactly to the shape of thewearers head. One such instance is in the case of an aircraft crewmember who, in the course of his duty, is subjected to very largefluctuations in gravity pull. In the past, off the shelf type headgearworn by aircraft crew members have not had form-fitting liners and havetended to move from side to side or from back to front (or the reverse)when the wearer was subjected to fluctuations in gravitational pull.Such headgear movements have been known to cause injury to the wearer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A method has now been devised by which alightweight, inexpensive, easily prepared, form-fitting protectiveheadgear liner can be quickly fabricated by anyone given a smallamountof equipment. The method requires as equipment a cover for the wearershead, such as a bathing cap commonly worn by female swimmers, a flexibledam which will fit tightly around the wearers head just below thedesired lower level of the formfitting liner to fill the space betweenhead and lower rim of an outer shell, and a rigid outer shell. Alsorequired is a foaming agent from which the liner is made. The use of theforegoing equipment will become obvious from the reading of thefollowing description of the preferred embodiments and from theaccompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a view of the dam andattached headpiece of this invention and shows a rigid outer shellspaced DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In practicing thisinvention, the head of the individual wearer is used as a perfect moldfor that individuals form-fitting, protective headgear liner. A dam,which may be constructed of flexible foam rubber or an inflatable rubberbladder or any other material which will allow the dam to fit snuglybetween the wearers head and the lower rim of an outer shell, is placedon the wearers head. A suitable dam 2 is shown in FIG. 1 of the drawing.The dam 2 shown by FIG. 1 is constructed with two tightly fitting earflaps 3 which serve to protect the wearers ears during the foamingoperation described later. FIG. 1 also shows a tightly fitting softrubber headpiece 1 over the top of the wearers head. A bathing cap ofthe type commonly worn by female swimmers is perfectly suitable as aheadpiece 1. The bathing cap should be glued, or attached in some othermanner, to the inner headband portion of the dam to prevent foamingagent from flowing through during the later described foaming operation.

FIG. 1 of the drawing also shows an outer shell 4 to be placed over thedam 2 of FIG. 1. The outer shell 4 should be the top portion of aprotective headgear for which a formfitting inner liner is desired. Forexample, if one wishes to prepare form-fitting inner liners for aircrewheadgear, one needs simply to remove the portions which normally coverthe ears from one headgear, drill one large opening 5 of about it inchdiameter in the top center of the crownand several small openings 6 ofabout 3/16 inch diameter around the perimeter of the crown, and one hasan outer portion of a mold which is suitable for the preparation of manyformfitting liners. FIG. 1 shows abrim' 7 attached to the outer shell 4.The brim is simply to prevent any foaming material from running over onto the wearer during the foaming step. The large .hole 5 is drilled forthe purpose of allowing a foaming material to be poured in and the smallholes 6 are to allow ambient air to escape during the foaming action;thus, allowing the foaming agent to fill the entire cavity between thewearers head and the inside of the protective headgear outer shell.

FIG. 2 shows the dam 2 with ear flaps 3 and headpiece I placed on awearers head. FIG. 2 also shows the outer shell 4 placed over the dam 2.Points 8 and 9 and all points around the dam therebetween are ofparticular interest. The outer shell should fit snugly against dam 2 atpoints 8 and 9 and all points between 8 and 9 around the outer perimeterof the dam 2. The number s 10 is used to designate an open space formedbetween the headpiece 1 and the inside of outer shell 4.

To fabricate a form-fitting liner one simply places the apparatus shownby FIG. 1 together on the head of the ,wearer as shown in FIG. 2 andfills cavity 10 with a are particularly suited for this purpose. It ispreferable that the foaming agent should foam without too great anexotherm. Temperatures above about 130F are uncomfortable to the wearersince the wearer has only a thin headpiece between his head and the foamwhile the foaming action is taking place.

If one wishes to cover the fabricated form-fitting liner with softleather or some other material, after it has been fabricated, one mayfabricate another head cover of the same thickness as the leather to beused and place this second head cover on the wearers head under theheadpiece 1 while the foam-ing operation is being carried out. Thissecond head cover may be fabricated from an insulating material toprotectthe wearers head from any excess heat that-might be generated bythe foaming action. If thisis done, the permissible foaming actionexotherm may be greatly increased. A second headpiece 11 is shown on thewearers head in FIG. 2 of the drawing.

More than one large opening 5 may be drilled in the crown of the outershell 4. The number of small openings 6 drilled in the upper crown ofthe outer shell will effect the density of the foam liner. Generally,the more holes, the less dense will be the finished foam liner. Thenumber of small openings may be varied from 6 to 60 or more depending onthe final density desired.

Before carrying out the foaming operation described above, all parts ofthe apparatus which will come into EXAMPLE OF A FOAMING FORMULATION ANDITS use A foaming material suitable for use in the practice of thisinvention may be prepared and used in the following manner. First,component I consisting of 190 grams of diphenylmethane diisocyanate and21 grams of trichloromonofluoromethane is mixed in a first con-.

tainer. Second, component ll consisting of 160 grams of apolyoxypropylene polyol. having an average molecular weight of about425, 2.4 grams of silicone glycol copolymer having an average molecularweight in the range of about 750 to 3,000, 48 grams oftrichloromonofluoromethane, and 0.52 gram of dibutyl tin diacetate ismixed in a second container. After mixing, component I and component llare poured together in a 1 to 1 ratio by weight and allowed to start abubbling action. As soon as the bubbling action begins, a suitableamount of the mixed componentsiis poured through large opening 5 of theapparatus which has been previously fitted together as shown by FIG. 2of the drawing. The foaming formulation described herein will foam togive a form fitting headgear liner which is very light and of excellentcolor and strength.

- The foaming action described herein produces a gas agent may be usedwhich foams to give the properties desired and which does not producetemperatures above that which can be tolerated by the individual wearer.Shielding may be utilized if a foaming agent with a high exotherm isused. It should also be emphasized that, although a headgear liner for aheadgear which will be worn by an aircrew member is used as the examplein this specification, form-fitting headgear liners have applications inmany other fields of endeavor.

Another embodiment of this invention should be pointed out. in all ofthe specification hereabove it has been assumed that the-rigidoutershell was to be used over and over again as the outer portion of amold for form-fitting inner liners. Now let us consider the case of anindividual wearer who wishes to use his own headgear as the outerportion of a mold. This wearer could simply procure a dam, a bathingcap, a foaming agent, and his own headgear as the necessary materialsfor practicing this invention. He could then drill one or more openingsin the top of his own headgear shell, remove any padding spacers,headband or other fitting devices which he had previously used, place abathing cap, a dam and the headgear shell on his head as describedabove, and carry out the foaming step: The wearer would then have hiswon personal headgear shell fitted with a form-fitting liner inside ofit. The wearer would never have to remove'the liner from inside of theheadgear.

Another embodiment of this invention would permit the wearer to place anappropriate amount of foaming material in an article such as a softplastic bag, place the bag over his head, place a hard outer shell overthe bag, and allow the foaming material to foam. This method would doaway with the necessity for a dam and with the necessity for drillingopenings in the rigid outer shell. The plastic material of the bag canbe easily said inner mold member to define a dome-shaped cavity betweensaid inner and outer mold members, means forming an annular seal betweensaid inner and outer mold members generally at the bottom of saidcavity, and opening means for injecting an expandable plastics foammaterial into said cavity and for venting air from said cavity inresponse to expansion of the foam material within said cavity.

2. A mold as defined in claim 1 including means for releasably securingsaid outer mold member to said inner mold member.

3. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said opening means for injectingthe expandable foam material into said cavity, comprise an openinglocated within said outer member.

4. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said opening means comprise aplurality of vent holes within said outer mold member.

5. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for supporting saidouter mold member, comprise a head band mounted on said inner moldmember adjacent the bottom of said cavity and forming said seal betweensaid inner and outer mold members.

6. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said inner mold member comprisesan elastic rubber-like cap having a substantially smooth outer surfaceand adapted to be stretched-fitted onto the individual s head.

7'. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said outer mold membercomprises a shell of a helmet.

1. A mold for producing an expanded foam plastics liner for a safety helmet, said mold comprising a deformable cap-like inner mold member of substantially uniform thickness and being effective to conform to the contour of an individual''s head when placed on the head, a dome-shaped outer mold member having an inner surface of predetermined contour, means for supporting said outer mold member in spaced relation to said inner mold member to define a dome-shaped cavity between said inner and outer mold members, means forming an annular seal between said inner and outer mold members generally at the bottom of said cavity, and opening means for injecting an expandable plastics foam material into said cavity and for venting air from said cavity in response to expansion of the foam material within said cavity.
 2. A mold as defined in claim 1 including means for releasably securing said outer mold member to said inner mold member.
 3. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said opening means for injecting the expandable foam material into said cavity, comprise an opening located within said outer member.
 4. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said opening means comprise a plurality of vent holes within said outer mold member.
 5. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for supporting said outer mold member, comprise a head band mounted on said inner mold member adjacent the bottom of said cavity and forming said seal between said inner and outer mold members.
 6. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said inner mold member comprises an elastic rubber-like cap having a substantially smooth outer surface and adapted to be stretched-fitted onto the individual''s head.
 7. A mold as defined in claim 1 wherein said outer mold member comprises a shell of a helmet. 